Police had to rescue an alleged chain thief from an angry mob which beat him mercilessly in May Pen, Clarendon, on Tuesday.

The alleged thief is accused of grabbing a woman chain on Main Street in May Pen and bolting off, but not before an alarm was raised and a mob gathered in hot pursuit.

The mob quickly caught up with the fleeing man on Anderson Drive and the beating started immediately before the suspected chain thief was rescued by a contingent of patrolling police, who cart him off in the direction of the May Pen Police Station.

An angry vendor, who was visibly upset at the police quick intervention, said that phone and chain grabbers are plaguing May Pen and driving fear into shoppers, who are afraid to take out their phones or display their jewellery.

"A pure grab chain, grab phone tek over May Pen. Yuh nuh see a two a the boy get kill round the road the other day, but them still nah learn, so a kill we ago kill them out," declared a vender who plies his wares on Main Street.

"But every time we fi kill some a the chain thief or some funny boy, the police them intervene and save the boy them. Any day them luck run out, you ago hear the story me a tell you," he warned.

Another vender who also chased the alleged thief said some of the perpetrators have armed guns, acid and other weapons.

"Some of the boy them strap (armed) sometimes them have all acid a work with when them a grab chain or phone," the vender said.